MacTech Blog

Jul 22

Index AR Solutions: AR market for U.S. enterprise to...

Augmented reality is projected to be a $105 billion market for U.S.enterprise within 15 years, with early adopters of the disruptive technology gaining a competitive advantage in their industries, according to a market perspective released by Index AR Solutions (www.indexarsolutions.com). The projected $105 billion in revenue includes $49 billion in hardware, $11 billion in software and $45 billion in services.

These are among the key findings of an Index AR Solutions market perspective researched and written by the firm's executive team and released today. Authors of the market perspective are Index AR Solutions President and CEO Dan Arczynski, Executive Vice President and COO Dexter Lilley and Director of Operations John Arczynski.

"This market perspective is a must read for companies and organizations considering augmented reality," Arczynski said. "Augmented reality is an investment in...

A new report from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) estimates global mobile data revenue will increase from $386 billion in 2015 to $630 billion in 2020, with most of the revenue growth in the Asia & Pacific region and the rest of the world.

The research group says North America and Western Europe will see only minimal growth, and in the U.S. especially, alternatives such as Wi-Fi have drawn consumer interest to reduce their mobile data bills. Cable operators are promoting Wi-Fi hotspots, and roughly 70% of U.S. mobile consumers are interested in Wi-Fi-only data plans.

A new study by Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) as found that the value of digital content transactions paid for by carrier billing is expected to reach $47 billion by 2020, more than 4 times 2015’s figure of just under $11.3 billion.

According to the new research Apple’s decision to test carrier billing in Germany and Russia is likely to herald a substantial number of further deployments in the medium term. Juniper says the move will be essential if Apple is to monetize unbanked owners of refurbished devices in emerging markets, who would otherwise be limited to paying for content via iTunes gift cards.

The report also says that carrier billing solutions could be a key means of monetizing content purchased within an array of environments, including connected cars and for in-flight infotainment. However, the research found that the operator practice of setting daily or monthly...

Worldwide IT spending is forecast to be flat in 2016, totaling $3.41 trillion, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). This is up from last quarter's forecast of negative 0.5 percent growth. The change in the forecast is mainly due to currency fluctuations, notes the research group.

"The current Gartner Worldwide IT Spending Forecast assumes that the U.K. would not exit the European Union. With the U.K.'s exit, there will likely be an erosion in business confidence and price increases which will impact U.K., Western Europe and worldwide IT spending," said John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner.

While the U.K. has embarked on a process to change, that change is yet to be defined. The "leave" vote will quickly affect IT spending in the U.K. and in Europe while other changes will take longer. Staff may be the largest immediate issue. The long-term uncertainty in work status will make the...

Tripwire (www.tripwire.com), a global provider of endpoint detection and response, security and compliance solutions, has announced the results of a study conducted for Tripwire by Dimensional Research.

The Tripwire study evaluated the confidence of IT professionals regarding the efficacy of seven key security controls, which must be in place to quickly detect a cyber attack in progress. Study respondents included 763 IT professionals from various industries, including 103 participants from federal government organizations.

Despite the persistent issues surrounding privileged access, almost one-third (thirty percent) of federal government respondents in Tripwire’s survey disclosed they are not able to detect every non-privileged user’s attempt to access files. In addition, seventy-three percent of federal government respondents assume their system would generate an alert or email within hours if a user...

According to the latest forecast from IDC (www.idc.com), total spending on IT infrastructure products (server, enterprise storage, and Ethernet switches) for deployment in cloud environments will increase by 15.5% in 2016 to reach $37.1 billion. This amount excludes double counting between storage and servers, according to the research group.

In comparison, spending on enterprise IT infrastructure deployed in traditional, non-cloud, environments will decline by 4.4% in 2016, but will still account for the largest share, 63.4%, of end user spending. Spending on private cloud IT infrastructure will grow by 10.3% year over year to $13.8 billion with more than 60% of this amount contributed by on-premises private cloud environments. Spending on public cloud IT infrastructure will increase by 18.8% in 2016 to $23.3 billion.

All regions are expected to increase spending on cloud IT infrastructure in 2016 with investments...

A new study from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that the total value of Bitcoin transactions is expected to exceed $92 billion this year, up from less than $27 billion in 2015. The research found that transaction volumes continued to be concentrated overwhelmingly on the exchanges, with Bitcoin now trading at values almost 50% higher than at the beginning of the year.

According to the new research, the rise in values could be attributed to three key factors:

° Uncertainty over Brexit – the research argued that Bitcoin’s value is to a significant extent dependent upon economic uncertainty and political instability as investors seek safe havens for their assets. Bitcoin’s price rose in the weeks leading up to the referendum, dipped briefly but sharply when it appeared that Britain would vote to remain in the EU, before recovering when the true result became apparent...

According to a new research report from the analyst firm of Berg Insight (www.berginsight.com), the installed base of wireless IoT [Internet of Things] devices in industrial automation reached 14.3 million in 2015.

The number of wireless IoT devices in automation networks is estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27.7% to reach 62.0 million by 2021. There is a wide range of wireless technologies used in industrial automation with different characteristics and use cases. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are the most widespread technologies in factory automation while cellular connectivity typically is used for remote monitoring and backhaul communication between plants.

The increasing popularity of Ethernet based networks in factory automation is one of the key drivers for the popularity of Wi-Fi in such applications. 802.15.4 based standards such as WirelessHART and ISA100.11a are major...

New data from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) shows that approximately one-third of smart home device owners experience problems with their smart home devices and nearly 10% report problems connecting a smart home device to the home network router. Consumers encounter these issues more often when setting up smart sprinkler systems, networked security cameras, and water leak detectors compared to other smart home devices.

"Smart home devices utilize nascent technologies, which increases the likelihood of problems with setup, product interoperability, and user error," said Patrice Samuels, Research Analyst, Parks Associates. "Until emerging devices evolve to a point where they are reliable and intuitive, support providers must implement solid support strategies that ensure customers have good experiences during product onboarding and get the full benefits of their new products.”

Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that smart traffic management and smart parking initiatives, will save some 4.2 billion man-hours annually by 2021 — equivalent to each city driver saving nearly an entire working day per year.

Juniper found that while the “smart city” remains a relatively young concept, many cities are beginning to recognize the need to improve in terms of competitiveness and quality of life. Increasing urban populations are creating pressure on city resources, driving the need for new and efficient solutions. Indeed, Juniper notes that the smart city concept is now a global phenomenon.

Juniper’s study found that traffic easing measures are at the forefront of many smart cities’ efforts. Key to those considerations are the establishment of viable public transport networks to replace private vehicle use.

Search marketing takes a back seat to other marketing channels used by large enterprise companies, as indicated by a new survey released today. Of 500 companies surveyed, a modest 5% rank paid search ads as their top marketing priority, while only 4% prioritize 'organic' search engine optimization (SEO) – targeting unpaid listings at the top of Google search results pages. The survey was a collaboration of the B2B research firm Clutch, and R2integrated (R2i), a digital agency.

With over 90% of enterprise companies surveyed indicating the low priority they place on search marketing, the potential result is that enterprises that neglect search marketing as part of their multichannel strategy are unlikely to capture the full extent of customer demand, in the view of industry analysts.

"SEO is inextricably linked to other channels like social media, content marketing, and even email and TV," said Kara Alcamo, vice president, Digital Activation at R2i. "Many studies show...

The total worldwide PC monitor market shipped more than 29 million units in the first quarter of 2016 (1Q16), up 0.5% year over year but a decrease of 5.7% compared to the previous quarter, according to new data from IDC (www.idc.com).

The research group expects the global monitor market will continue to decline at rates around 3% year over year from 2018 through 2020. However, there should be some pockets of growth along the way, as illustrated by the Middle East and Africa region, which experienced its second sequential gain in a row, recording 3.8% quarter-over-quarter growth in 1Q16, said Maura Fitzgerald, senior research analyst.

IDC currently forecasts 114 million PC monitor units will be shipped for full year 2016 and expects to see a year-over-year decline of 7.4% in worldwide shipments to 27.1 million units in the first quarter of 2017. By 2020, worldwide shipments are expected to be less than 100 million...

New research from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) shows that U.S. broadband households watch an average of 3.8 hours of Internet video on TV screens each week, accounting for 20% of all video viewed on this device.

The research group warns that consumers might increasingly use ad-blocking solutions while streaming video if the digital advertising methods disrupt their viewing experience. Parks Associates' digital media analysts advise service providers and media companies that the best defense against these ad blockers is to develop digital advertising models that are integrated and non-disruptive to the viewing experience.

The Spy is a wee bit late with this column. Too many birthdays in the last few days--Canada's on the first, the Excited States on the fourth and his own on the third. "How old?" his reader asks. It is a number in like class as the year 1961.

WWDC was somewhat a yawner, pretty much in accord the Spy's own predictions in his last column--no new products ready to sell, many software advances, and none of his maybe long shots became a reality--yet. Speaking of which, perhaps he will attend next year. Things then might be more interesting then.

Brexit was a surprise to some people. Perhaps with the polls indicating a remain side win, too many chose not to vote. Lots of consequences: accusations of fascism and racism, petitions for reconsidering, a hard negotiating stance from the EU (which holds all the cards), some flight of money that now gooses North American stock markets, political careers...

More than nine in 10 companies are struggling to deliver digital customer experiences that exceed their customers’ expectations, according to a new study from Accenture Interactive (www.accenture.com). The finding reflects the huge challenge brands are facing as customer expectations are becoming “liquid” and changing at a lightning pace.

The study is based on a survey of 702 customer experience decision-makers from companies in 14 countries. While 52% of all respondents said that they’re ahead of their competitors at providing digital customer experiences, only 7% said their company exceeds the expectations of their actual customers. Another 67% stated they ‘meet’ these expectations.

By 2020, a corporate "no-cloud" policy will be as rare as a "no-internet" policy is today, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com).

Cloud-first, and even cloud-only, is replacing the defensive no-cloud stance that dominated many large providers in recent years. Today, most provider technology innovation is cloud-centric, with the stated intent of retrofitting the technology to on-premises.

"Aside from the fact that many organizations with a no-cloud policy actually have some under-the-radar or unavoidable cloud usage, we believe that this position will become increasingly untenable," said Jeffrey Mann, research vice president at Gartner. "Cloud will increasingly be the default option for software deployment.
The same is true for custom software, which increasingly is designed for some variation of public or private cloud.”

This does not mean that everything will be cloud-based, and concern...

New data from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) shows only 19% of consumers are very familiar with programs that offer tax rebates or other incentives in return for energy-efficiency initiatives such as home remodeling or home energy management.

The research also shows only 15% of U.S. broadband households are very familiar with time-of-use (TOU) programs, but 36% of U.S. broadband households would participate in a program where they receive a payment for not using energy during a specific time of the day.

"Despite considerably low awareness of energy-efficiency programs, consumers are willing to take action to save energy-84% of U.S. broadband households took some kind of energy-savings action in 2015," said Eddie Accomando, research analyst, Parks Associates. "Utilities need to find better ways to get engaging information to their consumers.”

Forty-two percent of organizations expect to increase spending on mobile app development by an average of 31% in 2016, according to a recent survey by Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). Despite this, the average proportion of the overall application development budget allocated to mobile is only 10%, a 2% decrease from 2015, notes the research group.

The Gartner survey of IT and business leaders responsible for mobile strategy and/or custom mobile app development within their organizations was conducted in September 2015 across the United States, EMEA, Latin America and Asia/Pacific. The survey focused on understanding organizations' activities in mobile app development, covering both business-to-employee (B2E) and business-to-consumer (B2C) apps.

"Demand for mobile apps in the enterprise is growing, but the urgency to scale up mobile app development doesn't yet appear to be a priority for most organizations...

A new study from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that global digital advertising spend across mobile, wearable and online devices will exceed $285 billion by 2020, up from an estimated $160 billion in 2016. This will be driven by an average annual growth of 22% in mobile and wearable advertising spend, as brands and retailers continue to invest in mobile consumer engagement.

The new research found that despite the rising adoption of ad blockers, better audience targeting will drive higher click through rates and increase publisher revenues. Research author Sam Barker said: “Publishers, such as Facebook, are utilising their unprecedented audience knowledge to offer advertisers highly accurate targeting, thereby increasing the click through rates that advertisers are witnessing now.”

He added that publishers who are able to offer the most efficient targeting are set to...

New research from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) shows that consumers are steadily increasing their gaming activities on streaming media players, which includes form factors such as streaming sticks and boxes.

The research firm reveals that among U.S. broadband households with at least one Internet-connected device, 26% use their streaming media player as their primary device to access online video content. These households spend an average of 1.3 hours per week gaming on their streaming media players.

"Gaming consoles were once the dominant platform for accessing online content, but today, only 32% of U.S. broadband households with at least one Internet-connected CE device use their gaming console as their primary platform," said Barbara Kraus, director of Research, Parks Associates. "Gaming consoles are still in the lead, but smart TVs are a close second at 28%, with streaming...

New data from IDC (www.idc.com) says that 3D printer shipments in the United States grew by almost 20% in 2015 compared to 2014. What’s more, total 3D printer shipments in the U.S. are expected to experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 16% through 2020.

"People and companies that are adopting 3D printers are routinely realizing tremendous time and cost savings in their product creation and development cycles. As printer speeds increase and the range of materials expands, a growing number of products and parts, and therefore markets, will be impacted by 3D printing/additive manufacturing," said Tim Greene, research director, Hardcopy Solutions. "Already the 3D printer mix in the U.S. has changed over the last 12-24 months. While there are still a lot of shipments into the DIY/consumer market, tremendous growth remains in the segments with a more professional and manufacturing orientation. Leading 3D...

New data from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) finds that 23% of Millennial heads of household are OTT-only households, higher than the national average of 15% among all U.S broadband households.

The firm's analysts also note that 61% of Millennials subscribe to both pay-TV and OTT services, also higher than the national average of 52%. Other key points from the Parks Associates OTT research:

° Nearly 60% of OTT video services in the North American market are subscription-based.

° 64% of U.S. broadband households subscribe to an OTT video service, up from 59% in 2015.

° Average monthly spending on Internet-based subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services among U.S. broadband households increased from $3.71 per month in 2012 to $6.19 per month in 2015.

° Approximately 20% of U.S. broadband households cancelled at least one OTT video service in 2015.

A new study from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that eCommerce merchants and financial institutions will be investing heavily in online fraud detection solutions over the next five years, with annual spending reaching $9.2 billion by 2020, up by 30% on current levels..

According to the research, fraudsters now perceive mobile payment channels to be particularly vulnerable (and therefore attractive targets) as many organisations have yet to apply the same levels of protection to mobile as they have to desktop transactions.

Digital security companies regard the mitigation of mobile fraud as a key revenue generator in the medium term,” according to report author Gareth Owen. He says this was driving the development and implementation of advanced biometric authentication technologies which the companies claim can make mobile purchases as secure as any other web-based...

Over 110 million enterprise smartphones and tablets were shipped worldwide in the first quarter [Q1] 2016, according to Strategy Analytics (www.strategyanalytics.com). W

Worldwide business smartphone shipments for Q1 2016 fell to 92.2 million units, down 21.0% from the previous quarter and up 0.5% annually from 91.8 million in Q1 2015; while the worldwide business tablet market fell to 17.3 million unit shipments in Q1 2016, down 34.5% sequentially from 26.4 million units in Q4 2015 and down 9.8% annually from 19.1 million in Q1 2015, according to the research group. Weakening global smartphone and tablet demand, slowing economy, and piling-up inventory were hammering the growth of both BYOD and corporate-liable markets in the first quarter of the year.

"Many enterprises withheld from investing in new deployments of smartphones in Q1 2016 and inventory built-up due to large volume...

A new survey from One Hour Translation (http://tinyurl.com/z2dc859), the world’s largest online translation agency, maps the leading languages into which English-language are translated by app developers from the United States and United Kingdom.

According to data from the first quarter of 2016, about 28% of all mobile applications written in English by U.S. developers are intended for localization in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. In the United Kingdom, the rate is even higher: 55%.

“Mobile app developers are thinking of ways to reach their target audience beyond the markets they usually work in, and they know that the way to do this is by localizing their apps,” says Yaron Kaufman, One Hour Translation’s co-founder and vice president of Marketing and Sales.

The survey examined 2500 Android apps on Google Play and iOS apps on Apple’s App Store developed in the United States...

WiGig has emerged as one of the most promising Wi-Fi standards in the recent few years with high speed data rates up to 7 Gbps operating in the 60 GHz band.

WiGig products have been on the market since 2013 (e.g. Dell Docking station) but the market has been slow to develop given a lack of compelling use cases and the need for development of new chip-sets to lower cost and drive usage. Much development work has been done in the last few years by OEMs and chip vendors.

After a few false starts, will 2016 be the year that WiGig will finally takes off? Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com) says that many new products, across a number of sectors, have announced that they are adopting WiGig technology and the signs are very positive.

The smartphone market is getting more complex and dynamic, as well as maturing and being highly commoditized. In such mature market, technology improvements in smartphone has brought incremental enhancements and these are often not perceived by users as critical for them.

When it comes to the critical task of backing up data, nearly half of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the US say using both on-site and online solutions are important and necessary, according to a new survey by Clutch, a B2B research firm. In fact, many SMBs steadfastly hold to on-site backup, with 42% of those surveyed reporting that it's more important than online backup.
I
n the past two years alone, 63% of SMBs have adopted cloud-based backup solutions, according to Clutch's findings. Despite this surge, nearly 90% of SMBs continue to back up their data both online and on-site. The trend is to be expected, say cloud backup and disaster recovery thought leaders.

"It's natural for business owners to take a cautious approach to adopting technology, especially when it comes to securing their critical business data," said Mark Anderson, co-founder and IT srategist at Anderson Technologies. "SMBs are reluctant to abandon on-site backup and adopt cloud-...

New data from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) shows that wireless home security sales are increasing and almost one-half of home security owners in the U.S. have a self-installed home security system that connects wirelessly to sensors.

"The emergence of 'monitor-it-yourself' and hybrid professional monitoring options for self-installed devices is a key trend for the smart home in 2016," said Brad Russell, research analyst, Parks Associates. "Almost 50% of smart home devices currently in U.S. broadband households are self-installed, by the owner or by the owner's friends or family members.”

The research also shows that:

° 80% of U.S. security dealers currently install smart home devices as part of their services.

° About 25% of security replacements or upgrades include at least one smart home device, such as smart thermostats, networked video cameras, or smart...

Although the majority of manufacturers have implemented digital platforms, more than half (51 percent) lack the skills to operate digital factories, according to a new study from Accenture (NYSE: ACN). The Accenture Strategy report (www/accenture.com) revealed that the more successful manufacturers have advanced talent strategies in place to digitally enable the workforce of the future.

“Cracking the Code on the Digital Factory,” a report based on a global study of 450 manufacturers, found that a growing skills gap is one of their biggest concerns – a situation that has worsened in recent years as manufacturers have transformed their operations using new technology, analytics and mobility capabilities.

Fifty-five percent of manufacturers, up from 38 percent in 2013, reported a skills gap among skilled trades laborers, who need to operate increasingly advanced digital machinery and equipment, such as 3D printers or modeling and simulation tools on the plant floor....

Businesses that want to win, serve, and retain customers on digital platforms are increasingly turning to American IT firms who can get them to market faster with more effective customer engagement solutions than offshore providers, according to a new CapTech study (www.captechconsulting.com).

New numbers reveal that 63% of IT sourcing decision makers will hire more onshore third-party service providers for digital transformation projects in the coming year. Late projects, poor communication, poor quality, and escalating total costs were cited as the main reasons for bringing offshore work back onshore. The survey found that U.S. service providers deliver more value and consistently better results for meeting the demands of today’s digitally empowered customers.

A key driver behind this outcome is that onshore services are more grounded in agile development. Using the agile approach...

WiGig has emerged as one of the most promising Wi-Fi standards in the recent few years with high speed data rates up to 7 Gbps operating in the 60 GHz band.

WiGig products have been on the market since 2013 (e.g. Dell Docking station) but the market has been slow to develop given a lack of compelling use cases and the need for development of new chip-sets to lower cost and drive usage. Much development work has been done in the last few years by OEMs and chip vendors.

After a few false starts, will 2016 be the year that WiGig will finally takes off? Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com) says that many new products, across a number of sectors, have announced that they are adopting WiGig technology and the signs are very positive.

According to a new research report from Berg Insight (www.berginsight.com), the number of North American and European homes with a smart thermostat grew by 81% to 5.8 million in 2015.

The North American market recorded a 78% growth in the installed base of smart thermostats to 4.5 million. In Europe, the total number of homes with a smart thermostat grew by 90% year-on-year to reach 1.4 million.

Berg Insight forecasts that the number of homes with smart thermostats in Europe and North America will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 54.5%during the next five years to reach 51.1 million in 2020. North America will remain the largest market at the end of the forecast period with 32.2 million homes that have smart thermostats, whereas the installed base in Europe is expected to reach 18.9 million homes.

Smart thermostats is a particularly attractive opportunity in the smart home...

According to a new research report from Berg Insight (www.berginsight.com), the number smart homes in Europe and North America reached 17.9 million in 2015.

North America is the world’s most advanced smart home market and the region had an installed base of 12.7 million smart homes at the end of the year, a 56% year-on-year growth. The strong market growth is expected to last for years to come, driving the number of smart homes in North America to 46.2 million by 2020, which corresponds to 35% of all households, according to Berg Insight.

The European market is 2–3 years behind North America in terms of penetration and market maturity. At the end of 2015, there were 5.3 million smart homes in Europe and the market is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 54% in the next five years to reach 44.9 million smart homes by 2020, which corresponds to 20% of all European households...

Mobile app users spend 24% more on in-app transactions than on upfront app payments, according to an online consumer survey by Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). Consumer preference for in-app transactions indicates that the flexibility they offer is delivering a better customer experience than paid-for downloads, according to the research group.

"Overall, the survey results showed that mobile app users are spending $7.40 on paid-for apps every three months and $9.20 on in-app transactions, resulting in a quarter more spending on in-app transactions," said Stephanie Baghdassarian, research director at Gartner. "This confirms that once users are confident that an app delivers the expected value without having to pay upfront, they then find it easier to spend on in-app transactions.”

She added that not all users will activate in-app transactions, especially those who cannot see the value of the app. However,...

"The merger and acquisition activity that began flowing through the market in 2009 continued in 2015, with more than 30 notable acquisitions, Julian Poulter, research director at Gartner. "This has resulted in increased competition at the top end of the CRM market, with the continued focus of global vendors' sales forces driving good growth worldwide in all CRM subsegments but only for cloud or software as a service (SaaS) applications.”

Overall, the top five CRM software vendors accounted for more than 45% of the total market in 2015. The top five vendors had very little change in ranking compared with 2014, although Adobe jumped into the fifth position, displacing IBM, as it continues to lead the CRM marketing segment with a focus on...

ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com) forecasts global revenues of aftermarket mobile accessories to top $110 billion in 2021. Aftermarket Bluetooth headsets for smartphones will grow the fastest, in terms of both revenue and shipments, with shipments expected to show a 9% compound annual growth rate between 2016 and 2020, per the research group.

"Bluetooth stereo headset shipments are rising steadily, and Apple's rumored decision to remove the headphone jack from its new iPhone only further supports our belief that mobile accessory manufacturers will largely focus on Bluetooth audio listening in the near future," says Marina Lu, Senior Analyst at ABI Research. "Wired headsets are also showing strong growth, as consumers usually have to buy additional headsets for their smartphones."

Technavio (www.technavio.com) analysts forecast the global cloud-based virtual learning platform market to grow at a compound annual growth rate of over 25% through 2020. highlight the following four factors that are contributing to the growth of the global cloud-based virtual learning platform market:

° Innovation in cloud computing;

° Performance improvement of users;

° Emphasis on provision of continuous support;

° Reduction in operating cost

According to Jhansi Mary, a lead analyst at Technavio for education technology research, “Technology innovations in cloud computing have strengthened the accessibility of content and functioning of software and tools.” For instance, evolution in data centers in the last few years has enabled them to offer computing facilities to enhance data processing and storage. They offer high-performance servers, networking equipment, storage arrays, and...

The Spy spotted an article this month (which he won't loan credibility by providing a link) suggesting Apple was becoming the next Blackberry, doomed to fail because it is falling behind the times. Perhaps so, but that doom seems a long time off yet.

The good news is that WWDC, upcoming in two weeks, is likely to see a plethora of incremental upgrade announcements to please the faithful (though the Spy is giving it a pass again this year, as he's not expecting any blockbusters). Here's his list, in order of likelihood:

° New editions of both iOS and (rebranded) macOS (guaranteed);

° Incremental updates to Swift and Siri (almost certain);

° New products and alliances in medical, home automation (a must to retain a foothold);

Global unit shipments of smart city devices, which are internet-connected devices used in smart city projects, will increase from 115.4 million in 2015 to 1.2 billion in 2025. Although in 2015 North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific each received approximately one-third of unit shipments, the Asia-Pacific region will receive over half of all device shipments by 2025, according to IHS Inc. (www.ihs.com), a global source of critical information and insight.

“Unit shipments of smart city devices to Asia Pacific will increase more than shipments to other regions for two main reasons,” said Roz Euan-Smith, senior analyst, smart cities, for IHS Technology. “First, the region’s large population is increasingly moving to cities, which are straining under the increased pressure and demand for resources, creating a clear need for smart city development. Second, several national governments in the region have announced smart city...

In its annual survey of high net worth business owners (www.ustrust.com/survey), U.S. Trust found that business ownership can be challenging, but most entrepreneurs wouldn’t consider any other line of work and have personally invested themselves and their families in their businesses. While there are distinct differences between younger and older owners, entrepreneurs of all ages share a strong desire to control their own destiny.

The study of 242 high net worth business owners with at least $3 million in investable assets, part of the 2016 U.S. Trust Insights on Wealth and Worth survey, found what worries entrepreneurs most is what they don’t have control of: the unknown impact of the 2016 presidential election and a breach in cybersecurity, both of which could have significant implications for their business and personal financial interests.

According to the new “Worldwide Semiannual Big Data and Analytics Spending Guide” from International Data Corporation (IDC), worldwide revenues for big data and business analytics will grow from nearly $122 billion in 2015 to more than $187 billion in 2019, an increase of more than 50% over the five-year forecast period. The new Spending Guide expands on IDC's previous forecasts by offering greater revenue detail by technology, industry, and geography.

The services-related opportunity will account for more than half of all big data and business analytics revenue for most of the forecast period, with IT Services generating more than three times the annual revenues of Business Services, according to IDC (www.idc.com). Software will be the second largest category, generating more than $55 billion in revenues in 2019. Nearly half of these revenues will come from purchases of End-User Query, Reporting, and Analysis Tools and...

Technavio (www.technavio.com) is forecasting positive growth for many segments of the publishing and advertising market over the next four years as several markets, including mobile ad spending, programmatic ads, and advertising display, will witness an increase in revenues.

A rapid increase in the number of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets has compelled advertisers to choose mobile advertising over other forms of advertising. Recently, it has been observed that many service providers have developed tools for programmatic advertising and real-time bidding. These tools allow app developers and advertisers to monetize customer usage by displaying relevant ads, according to Technavio.

These ads are customized based on data regarding the customer's mobile usage, location, and search keywords acquired from cookies embedded in apps and web pages. Technavio market research analysts predict the...

A survey shows cybersecurity fears about breaches, identity theft, and privacy violations are taking a severe toll on the public trust and online commerce.

On May 13, the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released more analysis of its 2015 survey of 41,000 Americans on the topic of online security and privacy. As Violet Blue (@violetblue) summed it up in a post on Peerlyst (https://www.peerlyst.com), "Trust in digital security is flatlining.”

The Engadget journalist and author goes on to say, "We're talking about a huge dent in online commerce and the free flow of information, simply because people don't trust online companies anymore. It's not a growing digital economy we're in, it's a shrinking one.”

Global sales of smartphones to end users totaled 349 million units in the first quarter of 2016, a 3.9% increase over the same period in 2015, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). Smartphone sales represented 78% of total mobile phone sales in the first quarter of 2016, notes the research group.

Sales were driven by demand for low-cost smartphones in emerging markets and for affordable 4G smartphones, led by 4G connectivity promotion plans from communications service providers (CSPs) in many markets worldwide.

"In a slowing smartphone market where large vendors are experiencing growth saturation, emerging brands are disrupting existing brands' long-standing business models to increase their share," said Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner. "With such changing smartphone market dynamics, Chinese brands are emerging as the new top global brands. Two Chinese brands ranked within the top five...

Transitioning to a public cloud is a slow-moving process for most businesses, according to a new study by Softchoice, a managed services provider. The study, The State of Cloud Readiness, found that while progress is at hand, 61%of organizations are still experimenting with or have limited use of public cloud and less than 14% consider public cloud to be an internal corporate standard.

"Today, moving to the cloud is no longer a question of if, but when," said David MacDonald, President and CEO at Softchoice (http://www.softchoice.com). "However, many organizations are stuck in endless pilots or are hesitant to migrate to the public cloud in a meaningful way because they lack the strategy, skillsets and governance structures to build and maintain a fully realized cloud solution.”

The State of Cloud Readiness surveyed 250 senior IT decision-makers and 250 line of business managers across the U.S....

Intel Security has released findings from its new study, “Online Security Diet: You Are What You Click,” which examines the online behaviors and attitudes of Americans ages 21 to 54 toward dieting clickbait. The research revealed that when it comes to the desire for the ideal body, people may be willing to sacrifice their online security if it takes them a step closer to achieving desired results.

With the summer season approaching, May is a popular month to start a new diet routine, and people are turning online for quick solutions. Thanks to better weather, more hours of sunlight and planned vacations, consumers have more opportunities to be active, which kick-starts a new wave of diets long after New Year’s resolutions come to an end.

“Cybercriminals are becoming increasingly savvy at understanding the seasonality of consumer search habits and exploiting that information to their full potential,” said Gary Davis, chief consumer security evangelist at Intel Security...

New data from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) shows that 2% of U.S. broadband households, or 2.3 million households, own a virtual reality headset. The research firm’s survey of 10,000 U.S. broadband households reveals 5% of U.S. broadband households plan to buy a VR headset in 2016, an increase from only 1% who made a purchase the year prior.

"The big change in VR for 2016 has been the availability or pending availability of VR headsets from companies such as Facebook (Oculus Rift), Google (Google Cardboard), and HTC (Vive). Sony PlayStation VR is expected to be released in October. We expect gamers to be the initial market for VR," said Barbara Kraus, Director of Research, Parks Associates. "VR is an immersive experience, and more is better for gamers - more immersion, better sound, better graphics, and more players. The mass market is more likely to adopt mobile VR, which will be less...

Canalys (www.canalys.com) predicts vendors will ship 6.3 million virtual reality (VR) headsets worldwide in 2016, of which 40% will be in China.

VR has the potential to thrive in the country and the research group believes competition will be fierce this year. Barriers to enter the VR market have been lowered. Local vendors are releasing VR headsets that overcome the quality and performance issues of simple viewers, such as Samsung’s Gear VR and Google’s Cardboard.

“The competition is around the user experience, hardware quality and content,” says Canalys Analyst Jason Low. “Currently, there isn’t a clear leader for VR content in China. Local content providers, game publishers and service providers are racing to exercise their influence on the development of VR beyond hardware. Numerous Chinese vendors are exhibiting their VR headsets at CES Asia 2016 this week. Attendees are willing to suffer long queues...

A consumer survey conducted by leading mobile commerce analyst firm Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found near universal satisfaction amongst UK mobile banking users, with 98% of those surveyed stating that they were “very happy” or “quite happy” with their service.

However, the survey also found that with mobile access now perceived as a key pillar of a bank’s offering, 31% of mobile banking users would consider changing banks if they had a bad experience with their service. In the US it was much less of a concern, where users display similar levels of satisfaction with the service, but only 16% of respondents would consider leaving their current bank – suggesting that the mobile platform is less critical to their banking experience.

According to the survey, while 70% of UK respondents now use mobile banking services, a lack of trust in online services remains a key barrier to...

Software Updates via MacUpdate

BetterTouchTool adds many new, fully customizable gestures to the Magic Mouse, Multi-Touch MacBook trackpad, and Magic Trackpad.
These gestures are customizable:
Magic Mouse:
Pinch in / out (zoom... Read more

Tor Browser Bundle 7.5.2 - Anonymize Web...

The Tor Browser Bundle is an easy-to-use portable package of Tor, Vidalia, Torbutton, and a Firefox fork preconfigured to work together out of the box. It contains a modified copy of Firefox that... Read more

Monosnap 3.4.11 - Versatile screenshot u...

Monosnap lets you capture screenshots, share files, and record video and .gifs!
Features
Capture
Capture full screen, just part of the screen, or a selected window
Make your crop area pixel... Read more

Yummy FTP Pro 2.0.3 - $29.99

Yummy FTP Pro is an advanced Mac file transfer app which provides a full-featured professional toolkit combined with blazing speeds and impeccable reliability, so whether you want to transfer a few... Read more

Smultron 10.1.3 - Easy-to-use, powerful...

Smultron 10 is an elegant and powerful text editor that is easy to use. You can use Smultron 10 to create or edit any text document. Everything from a web page, a note or a script to any single piece... Read more

Time Out 2.4 - Break reminder tool with...

Time Out helps remind you to take work breaks throughout the day. It has two kinds of breaks: a "Normal" break, typically for 10 minutes after 50 minutes of work, so you can move about and relax,... Read more

Iridient Developer 3.2.2 - Powerful imag...

Iridient Developer (was RAW Developer) is a powerful image-conversion application designed specifically for OS X. Iridient Developer gives advanced photographers total control over every aspect of... Read more

DesktopLyrics 2.6.13 - Displays current...

DesktopLyrics is an application that displays the lyrics of the song currently playing in "iTunes" right on your desktop. The lyrics for the song have to be set in iTunes; DesktopLyrics does nothing... Read more

BusyContacts 1.2.8 - Fast, efficient con...

BusyContacts is a contact manager for OS X that makes creating, finding, and managing contacts faster and more efficient. It brings to contact management the same power, flexibility, and sharing... Read more

iClock 4.2.5 - Customizable menu bar clo...

iClock replaces the old Apple's default menu bar clock with more features, customization and increases your productivity.
Features:
Have your Apple or Google calendar instantly available from the... Read more

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All the best games on sale for iPhone an...

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Everything You Need to Know About The Fo...

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Death Coming (Games)

Death Coming 1.1.1.536
Device: iOS Universal
Category: Games
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Pixel Plex Guide - How to Build Better T...

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Fortnite Will Be Better Than PUBG on Mob...

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Price Scanner via MacPrices.net

MacBook Pro sale! B&H drops prices on new...

B&H Photo has dropped prices on new 2017 13″ MacBook Pros, with models now on sale for up to $200 off MSRP. Shipping is free, and B&H charges sales tax for NY & NJ residents only. Their... Read more

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